New women's shelter opens in Nelson House

Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation has opened the doors on a new women’s shelter in the community of Nelson House.

“We have recognized the need for a safe place like this in our community for many years,” NCN Chief Marcel Moody said in a statement Tuesday. “A dedicated, secure space for healing is crucial for women and their children who are dealing with domestic violence, abuse and trauma."

The grand opening was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

The new shelter is an eight-suite space that can accommodate four women with larger families and four women with smaller families at one time, according to a statement announcing the facility's opening.

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Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation has opened the doors on a new women’s shelter in the community of Nelson House.

"We have recognized the need for a safe place like this in our community for many years," NCN Chief Marcel Moody said in a statement Tuesday. "A dedicated, secure space for healing is crucial for women and their children who are dealing with domestic violence, abuse and trauma."

The grand opening was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

The new shelter is an eight-suite space that can accommodate four women with larger families and four women with smaller families at one time, according to a statement announcing the facility's opening.

Each suite is fully furnished and includes a private bathroom. Women share the shelter’s other common facilities, which include a laundry room, dining room, family area and child-care space. There are plans to add an outdoor playground.

The shelter was built to accommodate special needs, and includes security systems and monitoring. It has a staff of nine, with local hires and was jointly funded by the community and the federal government.

"Projects like the women’s shelter provide safe and affordable places to live, and offer culturally appropriate supports that are a key to a better life for the women and children who call them home," Jean-Yves Duclos, federal minister of families, children and social development (and the minister responsible for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) said in a statement.

CMHC provides funding for women’s shelters on First Nations.

"As much as we can, we will implement the Indigenous way of life and teachings in our counselling and programs, such as smudging and medicine-picking," the shelter’s executive director, Susan Kobliski, said.

"We want to create wellness, healing and empowerment."

The facility will collaborate with other community services, such as the NCN Medicine Lodge, the nursing station and NCN Family and Community Wellness Centre to help women and their families move successfully forward and break the cycle of abuse, the statement said.

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The Manitoba Association of Women’s Shelters welcomed the addition of a new space in the province.

"Service is always needed especially in the northern areas because the distances are so far. You can’t just stick your thumb out, because so many communities are fly-in," association co-ordinator Deena Brock said Tuesday. "It’s often a struggle getting women to a safe place. They call, and we have to find a way to get them to safety."

The NCN women’s shelter joins a group of four existing shelters run on First Nations, mostly in the North (at Pukatawagan, Shamattawa, Norway House, and Koostatak in Fisher River Cree Nation).

The group offers basically the same services as the 10 provincial shelters that exist mostly in the south. The only distinction is the funding source: federal shelters operate on federal funding and provincial shelters are provincially funded.

Nisichawayasihk is located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg and about 80 km west of Thompson. It has a population of about 3,500, with members living in Nelson House, South Indian Lake, Thompson, Brandon and Winnipeg.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

Alexandra PaulReporter

Alexandra is a veteran news reporter who has covered stories for the Winnipeg Free Press since 1987. She held the medical beat for nearly 17 years, and today specializes in coverage of Indigenous-related issues. She is among the most versatile journalists on the paper’s staff.

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